“Horrendous” – Paul Gorst On Ugly Copa America Scenes And Potential Punishment For Darwin Nunez | OneFootball

After a month of intense action in the Copa América and UEFA European Championship, both tournaments have now reached the final stage. There are four Liverpool players who will be hoping to bring home a winner’s medal. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez will be trying to ensure football is indeed ‘coming home’ as England take on Spain, whilst Luis Díaz and Alexis Mac Allister face off in Miami early on Monday morning.

Díaz and his Colombia side saw off another fellow Red earlier this week, edging out Darwin Núñez’s Uruguay 1-0 in the semi-final. Unfortunately, the match attracted more headlines for what transpired after it had finished than for the on-pitch action.

Videos circulated of clashes in the stands between fans of both nations, with Uruguayan players also becoming involved in the violence. Unfortunately, LFC star Núñez was a prominent figure in the clips, climbing up a stand to confront supporters and later brandishing a chair like a weapon.

The Uruguayan FA have defended their side, with La Celeste captain José María Giménez accusing a section of the Colombian support of targeting players’ families and that their children were placed in danger.

On the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we asked the Liverpool Echo’s LFC correspondent Paul Gorst for his thoughts on the Uruguay vs. Colombia fallout.

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Paul said:

“Horrendous, wasn’t it? Those fights broke out in the crowd. There didn’t appear to be too much of the segregation between Colombian and Uruguay supporters.

“Núñez ended up front and centre, didn’t he? It looked like he tried to throw a couple of punches at one point at a couple of fans.

“There are some suggestions that the players’ families were caught up in the melee as well. There were children being passed down from the stands to the pitch side by certain people on videos that I’ve seen.

“There’s a separate video of him threatening to hurl a chair at Colombia supporters who were goading him and the rest of the Uruguay team. He eventually gets it taken out of his hand as he’s about to release it and pulled away by his teammates.

“It’s just an awful end to the tournament for Uruguay and for Darwin Núñez. Given that he’s so visibly front and centre of the chaos and the violence essentially, we’ll see what happens with a potential fine.

“Núñez and the rest of them were in there defending their families, by all accounts. It’s just a horrendous, almost unique situation where players are in the crowd, fighting with supporters.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it if I’m honest. We might see the odd altercation but there’s physical blows getting thrown in the videos that I’ve seen.

“He tries to swing a chair and he gets it taken out of his hands and then he’s pulled back by the rest of his teammates. That could be the one that they take a dim view of, whether it’s your South American governing body or whether it goes above them and FIFA gets involved, we wait to see.”

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Redmen Reacts

Questions will have to be asked about the organisation and segregation of fans at the Bank of America Stadium in North Carolina. It is completely unacceptable for players to have to worry about the safety of their friends and family, and it is only natural for a parent to intervene if they think their child is in danger. Unfortunately for Darwin Núñez, the clips that have emerged on social media do not make great viewing. Angry though he may have been, to reemerge from the crowd like Triple H brandishing a chair could make him the latest Uruguayan Red to receive an ‘all football’ ban for an incident whilst on international duty. Darwin’s early red card against Crystal Palace was an indication of his potential hot-headedness, and were it not for others intervening and preventing him from throwing the chair, he may have got himself into extremely hot water.

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